Missile Retaliation... Intense Clashes Continue in the Strait of Hormuz

[Anchor]

Armed clashes between the United States and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz are increasingly escalating. The U.S. military has sunk another five Iranian oil tankers just three days later, while Iran retaliated by firing missiles at U.S. military bases in the Middle East and capturing a U.S. unmanned underwater vehicle.

Lee Hanseok reports from Washington.

[Reporter]

When a U.S. missile strikes the middle of an Iranian vessel, thick black smoke billows out alongside flames.

Engulfed in fierce flames, the ship tilts and sinks beneath the water's surface.

The U.S. military announced that it sank five oil tankers belonging to the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps near the Gulf of Oman and Kharg Island.

This was in retaliation for Iran's two ballistic missile attacks on U.S. Navy ships over the past two days.

The U.S. administration has ratcheted up pressure to the highest level by mass-sanctioning 36 targets, including 27 Iranian commercial airlines.

[Donald Trump / U.S. President: Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.]

Iran also launched a counterattack.

The Revolutionary Guard fired 20 ballistic missiles targeting the U.S. military base in Al-Azraq, Jordan.

The Jordanian military stated that 18 missiles were intercepted and two landed far from residential areas.

Iran also released footage claiming it had captured a state-of-the-art autonomous U.S. unmanned underwater vehicle in the Strait of Hormuz.

It further claimed to have inflicted massive damage by striking two U.S. destroyers, eight oil tankers, and ten vessels attempting to pass through the strait.

The Al Wakrah Naval Base in Qatar was also attacked, causing a fire.

As the Middle East's two major crude oil transport routes, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, effectively return to a state of war, international oil prices briefly surpassed 100 dollars per barrel during intraday trading.

In addition to direct clashes between the U.S. and Iran, the fronts are becoming complicated with Israel and Hezbollah, as well as Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, making mediation by neighboring countries increasingly difficult.

(Video reporting: Park Eunha, Video editing: Kim Byungjik)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.